Sport and Games Atlas

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Squash

Also Known As Squash Rackets
Racket Sports

Squash is a racket sport for two players (or four in doubles) played in a four-walled enclosed court, in which players alternate striking a small rubber ball against the front wall using point-a-rally scoring to eleven points (PARS). The game grew out of rackets at Harrow School, England, around 1830, when boys noticed that a punctured, softer ball that squashed on impact with the wall produced a slower, more varied game than hard-ball rackets; that informal schoolboy origin long preceded any written rules. The first formal rules, combining elements of rackets, tennis and fives, were published in 1912, and the Squash Rackets Association (now England Squash) followed in 1928 to standardize the game nationally and internationally; the World Squash Federation, founded 1967 as the International Squash Rackets Federation, is squash's current global governing body. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Origin Year
1830 1
Marks the informal, undocumented origin of squash at Harrow School around 1830, already described in this entity's own StatusNote; the entity's primary origin-year (1912) records the sport's first published formal rules instead.
Originating Region
England 1
International Governing Body
World Squash Federation, founded 5 January 1967 in Hastings, England, as the International Squash Rackets Federation; renamed World Squash Federation in 1992. 2
Disputed
Origin Year
1912 1
1912 marks the first published formal rules for squash, taken here as the sport's codified origin. The game itself is much older and undocumented in written rules: it developed informally from rackets at Harrow School around 1830, when a softer, punctured ball that squashed on wall impact produced a distinct, slower game, so squash's true beginning as an unwritten schoolboy pastime cannot be pinned to a single year.
Connections

Ancestor Of

Padel, Sports
Source Padel (sport) - Wikipedia
Racquetball, Sports
Source Racquetball, Wikipedia

Featured In

Governed By

Source Wikipedia, World Squash Federation

Played By

Sources
1. Wikipedia, Squash (sport)
Wikipedia
  • Quote
    boys at Harrow School noticed that a punctured ball, which squashed on impact with the wall, offered more variety
  • Lead section
    Squash, sometimes called squash rackets, is a racket sport
  • History section
    Later, around 1830, boys at Harrow School noticed that a punctured ball, which 'squashed' on impact with the wall, offered more variety to the game.
View the Source
2. Wikipedia, World Squash Federation
Wikipedia
Quote
established at the first meeting held on January 5, 1967
View the Source
Racquetball, Wikipedia
Ancestor Of: Racquetball, History section
Quote, Ancestor Of: Racquetball, History section
devised a set of rules, based on those of squash, handball, and paddleball
View the Source
Padel (sport) - Wikipedia
Ancestor Of: Padel, Lead section
Quote, Ancestor Of: Padel, Lead section
is a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis and squash
View the Source

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